The Golden Years
by miss izzy92
Summary: OneShot! Sometimes strangers have the biggest impact in our lives.


Disclaimer: I own squat!!

The wind swept through the park passing a boy sitting on the swings. The boy had pale skin, black hair and bright green eyes that were hidden by his glasses. The boy, Harry James Potter, was doing what he tended to do a lot these days. Brooding. That's it. That's what he was doing these days. Brood, brood and then brood some more.

He really needed to get a hobbie.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the sound of someone sitting next to him on the swings. Almost. He turned his head to look at the person. It was a girl about his age. Nothing eye-catching or beautiful. Just an average 15-16 year old girl with shoulder-length brown hair caught in a ponytail with a few shorter strands sticking out in odd directions, brown eyes, slightly on the heavy side, with black painted nails that looked more like black dots from being chewed so merciless, wearing a plain white tee-shirt, old jeans and black an white high-tops.

"Hi." She said, making her paper-clip bracelet jingle as she raised her hand as a way of greeting.

He nodded at her, not paying much attention. Ana uncomfortable silence followed until she spoke. "So, ye from around here?" She spoke loudly with a thick North London accent

"Yes." He answered her.

"Well, yer just a lil' ray of sunshine, ain't ye?" She said rolling her eyes.

"I beg your pardon." He said to her curious as to her antics. Maybe this could be interesting after all.

"An' I ain't givin' it ye. I mean, a girl's here tryin' to make polite conversation and ye don't even do the right thing to do when ye don' wanna talk."

"Which is?" Forget the maybe, this was being interesting.

"Tellin' me to shut my tramp, which don't always work, but hey, it's a start." She said grinning at him.

He shook his head at the girl that started humming 'I'm going slightly mad' under her breath.

"So, what's a borin' lad like yerself doin' outside, on a Saturday night?"

Harry tried glaring at her, but his heart wasn't into in. She was amusing him. He hadn't felt amused in a long time.

"Ye know, I'd ask if yer mute, but ye already spoke, so, that wouldn't be the brightest question, would it?" She asked giving an uneasy look.

"No." He said not even looking at her.

"Aleluia, he's alive!" She said loud enough to scare a stray cat.

"Oops! Ye know, I dun' really like cats. Mean little bastards tried to eat my canary when I was seven." She said glancing behind her to where the noise had come from.

"Imagine that, a cat trying to eat a bird." He said dead panned.

"Are ye always this dull?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No."

"So It's just form me then, blimey I'm flattered." She said sarcastically.

They sat in silence for several minutes. Harry was desperately trying to block the looks boring holes in his head. He finally snapped. "What?!"

"Ye haven't told me to shut my tramp yet. Which means ye want this conversation. Which means yer so lonely that ye willin' to listen to a complete stranger go on about things ye couldn't care less." She sot him a triumphant look, which he ignored.

"Maybe I am lonely." He said looking ahead.

"Ye know, things ain't always as bad as they seem." She told him.

"The person who said that doesn't know anything 'bout losing someone dear." Harry said scowling darkly.

"My grandfather died when I was nine. He practically raised me. He was always sittin' next to the door in this brown armchair. An' I used to look through the window for him to open the door. But he wasn't there anymore, an' I kept doin' that for six months." She looked at him sadly. "Time doesn't cure anythin' but it helps."

"Maybe." He said sadly.

"Do ye ever have fun?" She asked him out of the blue.

"Fun?" He asked her not comprehending where this was going.

Yes, Fun. It's somethin' human beings do sometimes. It makes them happy." She answered as if she was speaking to a very slow child.

"I know what having fun means." He snapped at her.

"Gee, don't get yer knickers in a twist, mate."

"Sorry." He was sorry, she hadn't done anything to him, except talking too much.

"Don't say yer sorry. It's useless, and worse it's borin'." She was quiet for a while. "Well, do ye?"

"Do what?"

"Have fun, genius. What where we talking 'bout?" She said rolling her eyes at him.

"Sometimes, I guess." He answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"Ye guess?!" She asked him shocked. "'Ye ever tried smokin' an' ended up coughin' for five minutes? Ever drank so much ye ended up drunk on the doorstep? Ever snuck in the movies with yer friends and ended up forbidden to ever enter the cinema again? Ever shot fireworks on November's 5th and almost torched yer house down? Ever… Auu!!"

Her speech was interrupted by her falling on the floor. Thanks to Dudley's gang mistreating and her added weight the swing collapsed sending her sprawling to the floor.

Harry got up and moved to her side to help her get up when he was surprised by the sound coming from her. She was laughing. And it wasn't the fake laugh he was so used to hearing these days. It was true, happy, make-fun-of-yourself laughter.

He shook his head at her smiling slightly. Smiling. He hadn't done that in a long time too.

"Ever laughed so hard that ye ended up cryin' 'cause ye couldn't laugh anymore?" She asked him still lying on the floor, tears of laughter streaming her face. He held out a hand which she took pushing herself up.

"No." He said, the ghost of a smile dancing across his face.

"Ye better hurry up then. Time's runnin' out, ye know." She said still smiling.

"What do you mean?" He asked his voice turning cold. Maybe she…

"Relax, will ye. All I'm sayin' is that these are yer Golden Years, and time ain't gonna go back 'cause ye ain't enjoyin' what ye have while ye have it. Life's too short and when I die I dun' wanna have any regrets an' ye shouldn't either." She said truthfully.

"I guess you're right." He said nodding. She was making a lot of sense and it was almost frightening.

"O' course I'm right. Was there even a doubt 'bout it?" She said smirking.

She looked at the dark sky above and said. "Well, I gotta go. It was…" she stopped seemingly thinking of the right word. "interestin' talking to ye."

She took of without another word. Harry called at her retreating form. "I didn't catch you're name!"

"I didn't give it to ye!" She faintly called back.

He smiled. Maybe he should smile more often.

A/N: This popped in my head last night when I was listening to Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah and I thought 'Harry never gets to do the stupid things teens do and it's kinda sad. And also because I'm kinda tired of those Mary-Sue characters that Harry meets

in the park that Harry falls madly in love with them as soon as he sees them. And tell me if her accent turned out okay, I mostly based it on Spike's accent (from Btvs).

Please review!!!


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